LAS VEGAS — Celtics fans won’t be seeing Payton Pritchard bombing away from 3-point land for the rest of Summer League. Pritchard wasn’t at Friday’s practice on UNLV’s campus, and he won’t be at the final two games of Summer League, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla confirmed.
“We’re having a talk as a team and organization, and Payton won’t be with us the rest of the way,” Mazzulla said after practice. “That’s a prior engagement he made months ago and it’s something we honored.”
Pritchard looked like one of the best guards in Summer League when he did play, starting all three games while averaging 20.3 points on 57.7% 3-point shooting. He was knocking it from deep every game and looked to be under control as the Celtics’ point guard.
The Celtics are in contention for the Summer League championship game after going 3-0, including two blowout victories. Normally, Summer League has bracket play but the updated format just has the two best teams play, which uses score differential as a tiebreaker.
Pritchard was one of five NBA returners who suited the Summer Celtics. Carsen Edwards, Aaron Nesmith, Bruno Fernando and Romeo Langford round out a roster that’s made some noise in Las Vegas.
The former Oregon product was a solid contributor for the Celtics, oftentimes working on his point guard skills. There’s no doubt the sharpshooter can stroke it from beyond the 3-point line, but his 8.7 assists per game average was another solid sign of development.
As Pritchard enters his second year, he aims to have an elevated role off the bench. While Summer League results should always have some context, Pritchard’s play over three games impressed.
“Shooting off the pick-and-roll variety of ways is a big separator in the league,” Pritchard said after Thursday’s win over Orlando. “You see a lot of good guards do that. Obviously, being able to manage the game, being able to control the pace and I think that’s a good thing we’ve been harping on, is like, pushing it, throwing the ball ahead or getting guys an easy look in transition.”
